Social initiatives

"Cohesion and solidarity in Europe have never been as important as they are today," said Angela Merkel on June 18, 2020 in her speech on taking over the EU Council Presidency on July 1. And this solidarity, which the Chancellor called for in her appeal to citizens on March 18, has been demonstrated in many different ways since the start of the pandemic.

Today, we would like to introduce you to some social initiatives that have emerged since the outbreak of the crisis and network helpers throughout Germany and the DACH region.

Krisenhilfe.eu

For example, the initiative krisenhilfe.eu, an initiative of the Campusjäger job platform. Campusjäger normally operates as a recruiting platform for students, but with this social initiative they have quickly expanded their offering.

Job seekers and helpers can find jobs in system-relevant areas such as logistics, agriculture and care under #krisehilfe. This offers people who have lost their current job due to the crisis, people who want to provide support and organizations that are urgently looking for employees the opportunity to network and help each other.

Volunteer personal contacts from the Campusjäger job exchange take care of the placement. In addition, the initiative offers a tab on its website that connects those seeking help and those providing help by allowing them to find initiatives/neighborhood help in the immediate vicinity.

Quarantine heroes

A similar service is offered by the Quarantine Heroes initiative, a partner of the Federal Ministry of Health initiative: Together against Corona. Helpers and those seeking help are also brought together on quarantänehelden.org.

Anyone who belongs to a risk group or is at risk of infection themselves can be a hero and stay at home. Anyone who is no longer able to leave the house can submit a request for help on the website and receive assistance with shopping, errands or walking the dog, for example.

Anyone who is healthy and wants to help can also become a quarantine hero and respond to requests for help in the area. As a helper, you also have the option of setting up push notifications if new requests for help are made in the vicinity. The website serves as an intermediary and contact option, all details: what is needed, when, where, are then clarified by private message.

Strong through the crisis

Such mediation platforms and neighbourhood help make an enormous contribution to the care of at-risk patients and the solidarity of society, but this is only a fraction of the problems that people are struggling with during the COVID-19 pandemic. Loneliness, depression, as well as tension, worries and fears surrounding the virus have become part of everyday life for many people. The additional psychological stress caused by the coronavirus crisis needs to be combated. But how can this be done when clinics and psychologists are overloaded or you yourself belong to the risk group and are not allowed to leave the house?

Hello Better has found a solution. Together with Allianz AG, they have launched the "Strong through the crisis" initiative. The startup, which otherwise offers psychological online training and online psychotherapy, has now developed a special corona training course with this initiative.

The free online training is based on methods of stress prevention and stress management and offers methodical approaches to stress prevention, stress management, relaxation and energy creation in 8 training units. In addition, "Stark durch Krise" also offers a free and anonymous helpline for psychological support. Together, they aim to promote mental health in times of crisis.

We think: What "Stark durch die Krise" and all the other initiatives are doing is really strong and we are impressed by the large number of volunteers and helpers who are all doing their bit to help us get through the crisis together.

This was part #4 of our "Pivot Masters" series.